Fast food boycott - noble, petty or hypocritical?

[GoodFellaJack]

Hi,

I have been boycotting major fast-food restaurant chains for the past 18 months or so primarily out of opposition to their practices; I also want to help keep locally-run places going while they are still there, as I live in a rural area dotted with coastal towns. It's a very old-fashioned place and there are still some small businesses which haven't been crushed by the major conglomerates. All property is theft but I'd rather eat in a cafe owned by a local person than some bland, identikit scum dispensary which has objectified its employees and causes gargantuan environmental damage.

However, am I just being pedantic? Is this boycott some expression of impotence, of not doing anything useful? I am in the privileged position of having alternatives to these awful places to eat, whereas urban populations often do not, especially in poor and deprived areas. I also have several friends who are currently wage-labourers at three establishments within ten miles of my home - the monstrosity of capitalism laid bare by their reliance on people patronising the fast food chains in order to stay in work. Put simply, if everyone locally, just in my hometown, boycotted these restaurants, it wouldn't affect the conglomerate itself, but it would put my friends out of work, along with many other ordinary workers. I have other friends of anarchist tendencies who nonetheless buy fast food when they're too beleaguered or short on cash to go for anything else. Early-morning, post-party visits to the drive-thru window are when most of them lose any anti-corporate instincts they have. I'm not a drinker or a partier myself, so I don't suffer the "easy meal" weakness. But I do find myself occasionally stuck in town and hungry, questioning the value of my one-person boycott,

So what do you advise? Should I continue this solitary crusade to bring down Big Junk by denying it my custom? Or should I just bite the bullet (and the medium fries) and eat there when I have to until we can organise major social change. As it stands, I'm not expecting the revolution to come anytime soon. Would I be a hypocrite to end to boycott, or an even greater hypocrite to continue it?

Thanks

[Anarcho-Fox]

I think framing this issue as one of whether or not you'll be a "hypocrite" is a bit lifestylist and moralistic, as if our consumer choices are an effective political tactic. This isn't to say I don't see "ethical consuming" as sometimes a good choice (say, if you know a co-op in the area), but I wouldn't be so hard on yourself in this moralistic way. After all, most people cannot afford (both in a literal monetary and in a broader sense) to practice "ethical consuming," nor should we expect this of people, as anarchism is not a lifestyle choice or a "moral" stand, at least as I see it.

On being "anti-corporate," I would say that's the domain of "progressive" liberals. Anarchists are anti-capitalist.

[irierudeboy]

the bottom line is that by not eating their poisonous garbage, you will be doing yourself a great service. if you want to couch that in some great revolutionary fervor, well, yawn... but you're still doing the right thing.

people will tell you that real food is more expensive, and therefore you're being "lifestlyist." they'll say you are being self righteous and holier than thou.

in other words, hey, eat fucking poison or else i will call you names! pretty stupid. haters gonna hate.

so rock on wicha bad self.

[GoodFellaJack]

Thanks to you both - yes, I don't want to just argue this as an individualist, narcissistic 'self'-based worry, I am more concerned with effective political tactics. Like I said, a one-man boycott is unlikely to do anything useful, but giving in and actually buying the fries will hardly help matters. My efforts to persuade others to join the boycott had thus far failed - again, most see it as an easy and inexpensive solution to short-term hunger, even if it is garbage with zero nutritional value. But the advice from both angles is appreciated.

[Randolph Carter]

I hate to come off as petty, but i boycott fast food primarily because I don't really enjoying spending hours on the shitter.

[Pach]

Boycott everything. It's the only way to be sure.